There is an increasing demand for organic compounds containing oxygen in the structure, e.g., ketones, aldehydes, alcohols, etc. and therefore, a demand for processes which are more efficient, selective and environmentally friendly. Since alcohols is one family of desired organic compounds, one selective reaction route is the Meerwein-Pondorf-Verley reduction of aldehydes and ketones and the Oppenauer oxidation of alcohols denoted as MPVO. The MPVO reactions do not reduce C.dbd.C double bonds nor C-halogen bonds and can be carried out under mild conditions. In MPV reduction a secondary alcohols is the reductant whereas in Oppenauer oxidations, a ketone is the oxidant.
The art discloses a number of references which address either the mechanism of the MPVO reaction or various catalysts for the reaction. For example, R. Anwander et al., in Chem. Communic. (1998) 1811 disclose a catalyst for MPV reduction which is an aluminum isopropoxide grafted onto purely siliceous MCM-41. R. Anwander and C. Palm in Studies in Surface Science and Catalysis, vol. 117; 413, L. Bonneviot, F. Beland, C. Danumah, S. Giasson and S. Kaliaguine, editors, (1998) Elsevier Science Press disclose grafting lanthanide alkoxide onto MCM-41; M. A. Aramendia et al. in Catalysis Letters, discloses the use of magnesium phosphates to catalyze the MPVO reaction. J. C. van der Waal et al. in Topics in Catalysis, 4 (1997), 261-268 (and references therein) disclose that zeolite beta and titanium containing beta can catalyze the MPVO reaction.
In contrast to the above art, applicants have carried out the MPVO reaction using a tin substituted molecular sieve which has the formula on an anhydrous basis of: EQU (M.sub.w Sn.sub.x Ti.sub.y Si.sub.1-x-y-z Ge.sub.z)O.sub.2
M is a metal having a +3 valence (trivalent metal) such as aluminum or boron, "w" has a value of about zero to about 2x, "x" can be from about 0.001 to about 0.1 while "y" and "z" have respectively values of zero to about 0.1 and 0 to about 0.08. As will be shown in detail in the examples, a tin containing zeolite beta catalyst is able to convert cyclohexanone to cyclohexanol using isopropanol or 2-butanol as the reductant. The tin-beta catalyst also has better activity and selectivity than zeolite beta or titanium zeolite beta.